‘I’ll clean up drug problem’

A dad of six has pledged to take on town centre drug dealers if he is successful in the forthcoming borough elections.

Ameer Shajahan Mohammed says he has witnessed blatant drug dealing in Bedford’s Midland Road during his work at a nearby town centre chicken takeaway.

He has even confronted one dealer of cocaine and urged him to change his ways.

Teetotal Ameer said: “There is very open drug dealing in Midland Road. I’m already watching and talking to police.”

Despite being a Labour Party member since 1996, Ameer is standing as an independent candidate for Castle Ward in the Bedford Borough elections, because he did not want to wait to be selected by the party.

“I’m 55 – waiting another four or five years is no good,” he said.

If successful, he has pledged to fight drugs, violence and crime in Castle Ward and hopes that the title of councillor will give him more power to make changes.

Ameer, who is a founding member of the Bedford Bangladeshi Islamic Mission, came to Bedford in 1987.

He has six children aged from 27 to 13 and lived in the Queens Park area for many years before moving to Bedford’s Brickhill.